Karen’s Training Log

A walk in the park

Four Ladies of Loantaka met today to take a short 5 mile walk. Perspective is an interesting thing. After walking 40 miles last weekend, going for a 5 mile walk today seems like nothing at all. On our return to the parking lot we found a large contingent of dogs and their owners. They were there for a 5K or 10K run for charity. Afterwards we went to the diner for breakfast and a walk “postmortem”. Brigid and Geri are walking in another breast cancer fundraiser next weekend. At 5K, it should be a breeze.

I have started training for the God’s Love We Deliver 4 mile run/walk. As I know I can easily walk it, I have decided to see if I can run it. Now, I have never been a runner. I like walking. Running always seemed too much effort. But I need a goal to motivate me to keep training, so this seemed like a reasonable thing to try.

During the week I did 2 minute intervals on the treadmill. I was able to do 3 run/walk intervals before my shins started to hurt. This evening I went to the gym and tried again, this time slowing the pace to 5 mph. I was able to do 3 min run/2 min walk intervals for 30 minutes. Then I went on the elliptical for an additional 15 minutes. As I am making up this training routine as I go, I have decided to do this for 2 more trips to the gym, then increase to 4 min run/2 min walk.

I am open to suggestions from anyone who runs.